Three Tips To Help With Choosing What To Take To An Assisted Living Facility

Even under the best of circumstances, moving to an assisted living facility will be a very stressful experience. To help your loved one make the transition as smoothly as possible, it helps if you know and communicate what kind of possessions are good to keep and what should be sold or disposed of. Here's three tips to help you and your loved one decide which possessions to retain in the move.

Ask Whether Things Can Be Stored Outside

If the facility in question allows a certain amount of resident possessions to be stored outside, you'll need to take that into account when deciding what to do with yard and patio items. On the other hand, if residents are only allowed to keep things in personal rooms, it's necessary to be strict about only retaining things that have a good purpose indoors.

Some things, such as futons, can be stored either indoors or outdoors. But if your loved one's options are already quite restricted, you'd be hard pressed to justify keeping something that isn't specialized for indoor use.

Don't Be Afraid To Get An Appraiser

If your loved one has a lot of old items that you can't place a value on, it's often worth it to hire an appraiser to ensure that you're not throwing away anything valuable. Even if you're selling what's not going to be kept, the input of an appraiser will be instrumental in getting the most money that you can.

Additionally, your loved one might desire to keep a particular item if it proves to be very valuable. At any rate, you don't want any regret as a result of discovering the value of something after the fact.

Consider Your Loved One's Health

While assisted living facilities aren't generally able to take someone who's completely immobile, even relatively healthy elderly people can have trouble getting around from time to time. So when making your recommendations about what to take to the facility, make sure that you're taking your loved one's current mobility capabilities into account.

It makes little sense to keep an old exercise bike or treadmill if your loved one can't use it without getting a sore back. The same logic also applies for things that are difficult to maintain such as aquariums.

If you don't carefully plan what items to take to an assisted living facility before making the actual move, you're setting yourself up for an unnecessarily long and hectic process. So don't cut corners with your preliminary planning or leave any questions about possessions unanswered.

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